Raipur, CGnews: Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar said of all the Naxal (India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) 15,000 armed men and women, affected 200 districts across 17 states, Chhattisgarh is at present the worst hit by Maoist activities. The affected area is Bastar in southern Chhattisgarh, comprising five districts: Kanker (northern Bastar), Bastar (Jagdalpur), Dantewada (southern Bastar), Bijapur and Narayanpur. The total area of these districts is 39,000 sq km, a little larger than Kerala and a little smaller than Haryana.

The region is in the heart of India. But it is remote, highly underdeveloped and largely unconnected. So even media can't get the right information and so some portion of it becomes the sympathisers of naxals.

From fielding farm implements, they have come a long way and now deploy SLRs, AK series rifles and INSAS rifles. Lately, they have also developed crude rocket launchers that are not accurate but have nuisance value. Besides, the Maoists have acquired a certain degree of versatility in fabricating landmines and Improvised Explosive devices (IEDs), a technique which they initially learnt from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
 
Taking further their ingenuity in fabricating explosives, the rebels have now begun to plant pressure mines.
 
Typically, these bombs are made by placing TNT or other explosives in a small, spherical container and attaching a blasting cap at the top of the container. The size of the blast depends upon the size of the container, and the amount of explosive material packed inside. Pressure bombs are made with readily available materials and can be as simple or as complex; all depends on the fabricator's choice.
 
"These bombs are easy to conceal. They are planted just below the surface of the earth. The pressure that a person walking normally would exert when he or she steps on it accidentally is all that is needed to trigger an explosion," G.P. Singh, the superintendent of police (Bastar), told this writer.
 
For the past couple of years, the Maoists have been widely planting pressure mines in Bastar.
 
It is sad and abhorring that the unintended target has been civilian population and innocent, speechless animals. Many civilians have been killed and many more injured with their limbs amputated in pressure mine blasts. Also, on a number of occasions ordinary cattle grazing in the forest have been killed or injured.